Moo Radio: Starting Out: How Much Should I Pay for Email Marketing?

Take a quick listen to a recent interview with OpenMoves Partner, Ronen Yaari as he discusses how much you should invest in email marketing. Grab your coffee, hit play, lean back and enjoy a quick 5 minutes of e-mail marketing talk.

Notes to Keep Your Eyes Amused

You love the idea of using email to drive business. But now you need to know how much is it going to cost, or — more importantly — how much to invest in your email marketing budget. Email has the aroma of being inexpensive, so you’re thinking that a minimal monthly fee that you can deduct from your expense account should do it. I suggest you take a step back and look at the bigger picture and on an annual basis, before you take out your credit card.

A Realistic Scenario

You have a list of 5K subscribers and you are sending a monthly email and doing re-mail to those who did not open the first time. Your annual volume is around 100K emails, which will cost about $1,200 annually.

Next… If you are going to show off your brand 100,000 times this year, it had better look good. So investing in a custom template, database setup and training will cost you another $1,000.

Finally, why not get a pro to help you put your emails together and send them out for you each month – so you know this puppy is actually going to walk. Account management for 12 mailings costs about $3,000 a year. So in total you are investing $5,200 for the first year or $.05/email.

Bottom Line

For $5K all you have to do is provide the content and imagery and the rest will get done. But is it worth it?

ROI acid test:

How many of your products or services do you need to sell to make $5K in profit?

Do you sell directly from your site or do you have a lead gen form and then follow up? How much is a lead worth?

What is the value of having everyone in your database hear from you several times a year – just to know you exist? Is it good for retention, x-selling and referrals?

From our experience, and we are sooooo biased, if you use best practices and keep your eye on the big picture, your ROI is almost guaranteed.